Matt Competed in the Preliminary Competition of the 12th "Chinese Bridge"

Matt Osborne, an undergraduate student at Brock University, participated in the Preliminary Competition of the 12th "Chinese Bridge" on May 4, 2013.

He performed the Art of Tai-ji Sword in the talent show. The Art of Tai-ji Sword is a Daoist martial art, which is a combination of combating skill and the Qi-Cultivation, with long history. The beauty of this art was like flowing water and the presentation of Matt successfully brought out the stream of sword.

Matt also gave a speech about how he was interested in Chinese and how he learned Chinese. His first face-to-face contact with Chinese was when he taught English as second language in Guilin, Guangxi, China. The fascinating scenery and hot-hearted locals were attractive to him. Then he wanted to have a deeper journey into Chinese Culture and decided to learn Chinese.

Matt practiced his speech and the Art of Sword at Confucius Institute at Brock University. The director of CI, Luo Cheng and the good friend of CI, James Maur also attended in the competition.

On representing the Confucius Institute Art Troupe, Minghui Zhang, a graduate from Wuhan Conservatory of Music, combined her sweet voice with her Canadian husband, James Maurs gave an extraordinary entertainment to the audience by performing a duet with a strong Chinese flavor song-- ”The Love from the Boat Tracker”, which even adds extra charm to this event.

The “Chinese Bridge” is a Chinese proficiency contest for post-secondary students worldwide. It is a large-scale International competition organized by Hanban, the Headquarter of Confucius Institutes. The final contest will be held in China. The preliminary contest held at Seneca University included, for each contestant, a speech presentation in Chinese, Q&A on Chinese language and culture, and a demonstration of some artistic talents related to Chinese culture and language. The 11st Chinese Brigde was held by the Confucius Institute at Brock University on Mar. 30, 2012.